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Apple Further Trims iPhone 5c Production as Customers Continue to Prefer iPhone 5s
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If people wanted to buy the old iphone 5, they would have bought the old iphone 5.
What I always find amusing is when the local Fanbois flame anyone who speaks ill of Apple, but there were many who did so regarding the 5C. I, and many others, remarked about the 5C being a re-branded 5 and hearing "Sir Jony I" use the words "unapologetically plastic" well, it sounded like an apology then and it still sounds like one today. And the person in Apple's marketing department should now have to, well, apologize for the use of that phrase.
Don't get me wrong: Apple makes the best computers, tablets and phone in the marketplace, but even a great company sometime gets it wrong...and they did, by rebranding an old model and calling it (like a breakfast cereal) new and improved.
And here is the great parody about it: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hGoq36UX6IY
"Those who want this product have never seen a mall kiosk before". "The very first iphone for commoners".
Apple products were never meant to be exclusive, just premium.
Wasn't apple originally supposed to be the "people's computer"?
Aluminum isn't exactly luxurious either.
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And some people can afford to buy what they like, when they like it, and not give a hoot what economic class some random guy on the street supposed into them.......
It sounds like a lot of you guys are super self conscious and have social status wrapped up in your phones. There are far better signals if you want to note your economic status to others. In a few months every Burberry wearing chav in ilthe UK is going to have a 5s. Exclusive my ass.
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They should raise the price of the 5s then.
Scalpers were jacking them up 30%+ a month after launch.
The price has been reduced, but not the average cost of owning an iPhone. If the iPhone 5c is "good enough" for two years and the iPhone 5s will be "good enough" for three years thanks to its A7 chip, then the 5s is by far the more cost-effective phone. Just like the iPad 2 is not a bargain just because it's $100 less than the iPad Air.
This. The iphone 5c is a great phone, and one I anticipated on buying until I saw the price tag. The 5s holds its own against any other phone out there, but compare the 5c to the nexus or windows phones that perform the same basic functions for $100 to $200 and it's left in the dust.
Posts like this really bother me. Why bring up the issue of what the 5 / 5c / 5s cost difference is if you're not going to discuss it. If you wanted to prove the point that the person you quoted doesn't personally know the answer, then do it in a private message. This was posted to the internet for people who don't know or care whether you were "right" or some other stranger was "wrong"--what matters is the facts and points being discussed, since we don't know either of you.
For the record, the BOM for the phones including labor / manufacturing cost according to isuppli is:
Iphone 5 $207
Iphone 5c $173-183 (estimated by IHS)
Iphone 5s $198.70
So the conclusion is Apple is saving ~$20 per unit with the iphone 5c. Now the bigger question is how many missed sales they aren't getting because they don't have a product that competes with the Nokia Lumias or Nexus phones. The margin on any of the above phones is fantastic, but margin is only one component--one must also consider sales volume.
i guess you could adjust wayne gretzkys quote to
there is 0% margin on the phone you dont sell
That's pretty much what they've been doing for 7 years now and it doesn't seem to be hurting them. At all.
Although, redesigning the shell doesn't really change the insides that much, but the market perceives it as being "big" changes. I'm not sure if there are larger more significant changes internally from the 3GS->4 or 4s->5 then there were from the 4->4s or 5->5s. The lightning change happened but that just meant I had to replace all my cables and docks, no benefit there.
Personally, I'd rather update on the "S" years, the cases and accessories are available and cheaper
Gary
Yes, except that until two or three years ago Android was a generally poorly designed and inconsistent OS. Windows Phone 8 did not even exist.
Things have changed since then: Android has become arguably a better, more robust OS than iOS and Windows 8 is making inroads with Nokia.
And things will change even faster in the future.
Apple can be slow to change at its peril.
iPhone 5c doesn't compete with Nokia Lumias ? You are right: is waaaay better
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In what parallel reality ?
Android still is a fragmented , inconsistent OS for a lot of people .... People who choose to buy an iPhone even if is more expensive and hasn't a "12-core/32 Gb ram/3 Ghz/7" amoled display" like any Android wannabe-flagship
Really?
Sure the sales aren't as high as the 5S but how do they compare to the models in the same price point over the last few years?
Which was last years model not repackaged or improved.
That we don't know and these new graphs do nothing to enlighten us. They don't even show if overall use has increased or decreased over the period.
That's because they were actually more lower cost. The iPhone 4 was free on most networks and I don't recall the price of the 4S, but I do know the contracts were also quite a bit cheaper than the latest iPhones.
Now it's like this for £37 a month and a fee of £49 I could have an iPhone 5C or for £37 a month and an upfront fee of £99 I can get a 5S which would you choose?
I think you need to catch up on the fact that a lot of intelligent people don't care about what will be minor differences between the 5s and 5c even a year from now, and enjoy their 5c.
Maybe I am wrong.....
but if Apple had offered the 5C in another price point/range, they will no be cutting production. I know it is against Apple culture make a product cheap only for te sake of selling, but seems like the people prefer to shell out more $$ in order to get better hardware (but that can be argued also in the Mac arena, where we, Mac users paid a premium to get the Apple hardware).
Anyways, I hope the 5C remains visible and available, as seems to me like an option to get hardware in Apple quality, saving some $$ in the process.....
but if Apple had offered the 5C in another price point/range, they will no be cutting production. I know it is against Apple culture make a product cheap only for te sake of selling, but seems like the people prefer to shell out more $$ in order to get better hardware (but that can be argued also in the Mac arena, where we, Mac users paid a premium to get the Apple hardware).
Anyways, I hope the 5C remains visible and available, as seems to me like an option to get hardware in Apple quality, saving some $$ in the process.....
In some sense, I agree with you. Although when we're talking about a $100 difference to the consumer in order to entice people to buy the latest device with the longest lifespan, I think it does actually help consumers and helps iOS progress. The greater the variance in # of 5S's vs. # of 5C's/4S's means more devices capable of more advanced features in iOS. How many 4 owners are upset about iOS 7 on the iPhone 4?
So people are buying the higher margin 5s instead of the 5c. When the iPhone 4 and the 4s were selling better than expected, that was supposed to be a bad thing too. Now I'm confused. Then again, the 5c seems like a pretty obvious attempt to keep the margin under control and as it goes down in price to $0 on contract, that's when its worth will be tested in the coming months.
As it stands, the sales volume of neither Nokia Lumias or the Nexus phones is all that great. The low end Lumias is giving some extra addition to Nokia's sales but the volume still isn't that high considering how little margin Nokia must be making with them. I can't imagine why Apple would want compete against them at this point.
I always thought the Nexus products make a good example where something garners a great deal of attention and importance online amongst geeks but the actual market performance doesn't match up to hype. It has always been that way ever since the first Nexus One. Even the last year's Nexus 7 didn't sell all that many despite selling without much of a margin, if any.
One conjecture on my part is that the true force in the market is the no name OEMs not known in the Western world but as a collective group moving a high number units in the developing countries, selling Android devices with cheap processors at a very little margin. For that type of market, even the Nexus products are probably too expensive. However the typical supporter of Android online probably couldn't muster enough enthusiasm on those so we rarely hear about those.
As it stands, the sales volume of neither Nokia Lumias or the Nexus phones is all that great. The low end Lumias is giving some extra addition to Nokia's sales but the volume still isn't that high considering how little margin Nokia must be making with them. I can't imagine why Apple would want compete against them at this point.
I always thought the Nexus products make a good example where something garners a great deal of attention and importance online amongst geeks but the actual market performance doesn't match up to hype. It has always been that way ever since the first Nexus One. Even the last year's Nexus 7 didn't sell all that many despite selling without much of a margin, if any.
One conjecture on my part is that the true force in the market is the no name OEMs not known in the Western world but as a collective group moving a high number units in the developing countries, selling Android devices with cheap processors at a very little margin. For that type of market, even the Nexus products are probably too expensive. However the typical supporter of Android online probably couldn't muster enough enthusiasm on those so we rarely hear about those.
Most UK carriers are doing the 5c for free now.
If you go to Carphone Warehouse or Phones4U and cut out the carrier stores you get great deals on 5c. One I noticed was a free 16GB iPhone 5c with unlimited cross network minutes and texts with 1GB of 4G data for £32 per month. That is from Phones4U.
The most I have seen any carrier charge for the 5c on a £37 per month tariff is £29, again that's via O2 directly.
To get a 5s free you need to either pay £119 up front for the phone to go on the £37 per month tariff above but with 3G data, or go up to £42 per month and pay £29 up front. Again I'm using O2 as a comparison.
I'm £37 per month now with my 4s but the deal of a free 5c on a 4G plan with unlimited minutes and texts while dropping £5 off my monthly bill would be tempting if my upgrade were due today.
As it stands I must wait until March by which time the 5s will no doubt be on different deals as it is older.
Actually witnessed an Apple store employee telling a lady that it's last years technology inside a new shell. Basically he ended up discouraging her from buying the 5C. Don't think she bought anything that day..
They created a low-cost phone to manufacture but didn't make it low-cost for the consumer to buy.
Tight-arses.
A Very smart employee ....
Indeed.
When I worked for Apple I did the same thing. Had customers coming in wanting to know about gaming on a Mac, and I told them the truth. They usually bought the Mac for the right reasons, or didn't buy it for the right reasons.
The iPhone 5s holds its own in many regards and blows away the competition in many regards, but folks need to tell it like it is. Probably one of the downsides of not giving employees commission.
Either way, I always like holding a device in the wild before making an personal judgement calls in regards to tech. I personally think the 5C feels and looks better than any other iPhone to date. I am old school Apple guy, and the plastic just reminds me of the iBooks, and white iMacs of ole.
If I needed to buy an iPhone, or just wanted a smaller phone to do some light field work (and didn't mind carrying four devices again instead of just the two) then there's a 98% chance I'd get the 5C.
I just wish Apple made a black one, or a deep Product Red one.
I understand the smaller connector has benefits, but I had an wrist strap that would snap into the dock connector (you had to press to two tabs to release) which was great when taking lots of photos near water, balconies, cliffs, snow, etc.
I'm not sure why the cutback in production is a big deal, isn't this pretty much last year's iPhone 5 in a plastic case? It's the plastic colors that aren't selling, not the iPhone.
Personally, I think releasing them on the same day doesn't do any favors for anyone, especially when in short supply. Don't update the 5c next September with the phone. Wait a few months (or do August for the 6 and November for the cheaper model); promote it as another product release and some more news cycles...
Gary
Yes but you were right about gaming on a Mac.
Speaking of "last year technology" about an iPhone 5c is misleading.
There are plenty of smartphones out there that are "this year" phones and still are worse than "last year" iPhone 5 .....